Let the holidays begin!

February 16, 2007

Well, my holidays for the lunar new year have begun. What did I do on the first day of said holiday? I cooked dinner for four of my colleagues – all women. (Out of a staff of approximately 45 teachers at my school, there are only about 6 males, including myself) Once they arrived, I mentioned that the rumour mill was going to be working overtime in my apartment complex now. They looked confused. I explained that I’m one of a handful of foreigners (a damn small handful) living in this complex. The others are families. I live alone and I’ve just had four women come up to my apartment at the same time. ‘Ding!’ You could see the light-bulbs go on over their heads. At least they laughed rather than being horrified.

Dinner was a great success and I think my stock went through the roof after appetizers of prosciutto wrapped asparagus with grated parmesan and then a main course of smoked salmon pasta (cream sauce, that is). All complimented by a couple of bottles of wine. The fact that Asians lack the protein to properly break down alcohol only added to fun.

Remarkably, I was able to find Canadian smoked salmon here in one of the foreign food supermarkets. Finding foreign food stuff is certainly one of the areas that Hong Kong is superior to Japan. Japan is certainly getting better with that but still has a long way to go yet.

I’ve been invited to a Chinese new year eve dinner tomorrow night. The new year eve dinner is a big deal in Chinese culture so it should prove to be an interesting experience. More to come on that after the fact.